1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communications, and in particular, to systems, methods, and software for monitoring service networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication service providers commonly offer many different types of communication services to their customers, such as voice, video, and data services. The services are typically provided over a service network that consists of a wide variety of systems. Some systems are utilized by several services simultaneously. Other systems are only utilized by a single service. For example, a voice service and a music download service may both require a base station in order to deliver each service to a mobile user. In contrast, the music download service may require a music server, whereas the voice service would not.
Network monitoring systems are well known in the prior art. Most monitoring systems display a service network and the systems that belong to the service network in a graphical manner. The monitoring systems receive performance information from the systems and display the performance information for the systems accordingly. For example, the monitoring systems generate and display alarms when the performance information indicates the failure of or other such performance problem with a system.
Present network monitoring systems allow a user to select which systems in a service network should be monitored. For instance, one particular system used to deliver a music download service may be of interest to the user. The user can select that system for monitoring. However, users often times may not know which systems are used to provide a particular service. Yet, present network monitoring systems assume that a user has a detailed knowledge of which systems are used by each service. In such cases, a user must resort to trial and error in order to select the appropriate system to monitor.